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Was out of town all week. Back to polishing. Done with C on the top skin:

Onto the forward skin.

Crawling towards the finish line - have polished the bottom LE through C. That is the part hanging down.

Those are some nice looking skins Bryan! I'm almost convinced I'm still doing mine wrong, but, keeping with my same routine.

Ken,
It is mostly trick photography. My goal is to have it look great at 20' for the first flight, get through the big polishing in the beginning, then finish after I am flying. My skins look better in the pictures than in person.

I was taking a break from polishing, sitting on my '73 Harley Model D two stroke golf cart and catching up on Waiexbuilders. Saw this cool reflection shot:

The top skin and leading edge are polished. I am going to take a break from polishing. I plan to finish up the dimpling and get the top riveted on. I need something fun for both my own sanity and to lure Adam back to the hangar.

Dimpling:


In motion:
http://youtu.be/hdVYxRO9QU8

Bryan, your polishing looks incredible!

My hangar neighbor shared with me a tip that he uses. He doesn't use the S and C grades and started using "Blue Magic" on his T-34. I was really impressed so I tried it. I went a step further and eliminated all of the NuVite and went straight to Blue Magic.

And at $6 for a large can, it works better, faster and at a 1/20 of the price. A can goes 2x farther. :)

Here is the results of my wing/fuse from 2 passes of Blue Magic (1/3 of a can)...nothing else. Not perfect in real life under florescent lights, but in the sun from 10ft it looks like a mirror.

Farm & Fleet sells it for $5.85.

http://www.amazon.com/BlueMagic-400-Met ... blue+magic

Note: My harbor freight polisher was crap and couldn't get the results. I bought a $230 DeWalt with variable speed. First pass at 2,400rpm and second pass at 700 rpm. I use the harbor freight tuffed wool pads (one per section - right top wing, right bottom wing, right fuse, etc. etc.)

Josh,
Looks great! I pretty much have all the Nuvite I need to finish the job. I'll probably stay the course.

Meanwhile, once I get the Chief Riveter back in the hangar it is time to go to town!

jjbardell wrote:Bryan, your polishing looks incredible!

My hangar neighbor shared with me a tip that he uses. He doesn't use the S and C grades and started using "Blue Magic" on his T-34. I was really impressed so I tried it. I went a step further and eliminated all of the NuVite and went straight to Blue Magic.

And at $6 for a large can, it works better, faster and at a 1/20 of the price. A can goes 2x farther. :)


Note: My harbor freight polisher was crap and couldn't get the results. I bought a $230 DeWalt with variable speed. First pass at 2,400rpm and second pass at 700 rpm. I use the harbor freight tuffed wool pads (one per section - right top wing, right bottom wing, right fuse, etc. etc.)

That looks like a heck of a polish Josh! Just to clarify, your airplane didn't have any polish before you did two passes with the Blue Magic? Very impressive results if that's all you've done for polish! I'm going to have to get some of that to try! Thanks for the tip! :mrgreen:

Mike,
That's correct. Just blue magic. It didn't take out the mill that well, thus a 5ft rule. Lol. I think F9 to Blue Magic would be an incredible combo.

I plan to do a serious polish job after I get airborne and burn off my 40 hours...which I hope will commence next Wednesday at 9am when the FAA is scheduled to arrive. :D :D :D